All of us at Texas Wine Journal would like to raise a glass to TEXSOM for celebrating 10 years this past weekend. Ari Auber at the Austin American-Statesman had an excellent preview last week on the Liquid blog, talking about the importance of the wine education conference in growing the profile of Texas wines. The growing number of wineries, award-winning wines, and recognition from wine experts across the nation and around the world are all fantastic. But the growing number of sommeliers in the state — including some of whom participate on our judging panel — are helping to educate and steer Texas wine drinkers to better-informed choices, and is elevating the entire industry. Though there’s a lot of interesting news coming out of the conference, check out Auber’s preview if you haven’t done so yet; it gives some good perspective on how TEXSOM’s progressed in its first decade.